Hello, Readers! I am celebrating my birthday with extra chapter updates, so please enjoy this special chapter release of 4 bonus chapters! 🥳

(Lurelia’s Birthday Bonus – Update 2/4 🎉)

♡ To all readers who purchased these chapters before my Birthday: I can’t express this enough – Thank you for your support. (*ˊᗜˋ*)/ᵗᑋᵃᐢᵏ ᵞᵒᵘ*

I jumped up in surprise again.

Thud!

With a dull sound, the assassin’s body fell to the floor. Red blood spread across the floor.

Niel looked down at the assassin with cold eyes.

A long sword was in his hand. Somehow, he had moved so quickly, drawing the sword he had placed at the bedside and cutting down the assassin.

“You…!”

My eyes shook violently. My gaze was directed not at the fallen assassin but at Niel’s side.

The assassin’s dagger was embedded in his side.

Following my eyes, Niel discovered it and pulled it out with an indifferent hand, throwing it to the floor.

Clang.

The cold piece of metal rolled across the floor.

Where the dagger had been pulled out, bright red blood spread across his white shirt.

“Are you alright?”

Niel turned to me and asked. He limped toward me on his injured leg.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

He reached out toward my disheveled hair but suddenly stopped.

Niel frowned as he saw the blood on his hand.

Then he smiled slightly, lowered his hand, and after looking me over intently, muttered with a relieved expression.

“…Thank goodness. You’re not hurt.”

“This isn’t the time to check on me!”

I raised my voice without realizing it and pressed both hands against his side.

‘D*mn, the bleeding…’

The wound was large, making it difficult to stop the bleeding. My hands trembled.

I was certainly not hurt at all. There was no way I could have been. I hadn’t even brushed against the assassin who attacked my room.

“Why did you do that? Even if you hadn’t stepped in…”

I couldn’t understand Niel. I could have subdued the assassin perfectly well without his intervention. Niel must have known that. Moreover, he was already in discomfort with his leg injured from fighting with Cail. So why, why…

It was then.

He wrapped his thick arm around my waist and pulled me close.

“Five years ago…”

His hot body pressed against mine without any gap.

Thump, thump.

The sound of his heartbeat was transmitted to me without a filter.

“Even then, I actually wanted to do this, Jella.”

With a face drained of blood and pale, he whispered in my ear.

“I wanted to protect you from those who said you should die. I wanted to take the sharp gazes and words of those who stabbed you instead.”

“……”

“Not being able to do that then, not being able to prevent your death in the end, still torments me.”

“……”

I stared at him blankly.

His face, saying he had actually wanted to protect me when he had been at the forefront of those wanting to kill me, felt like it belonged to a stranger I didn’t know.

“So I.”

He pressed his lips to the back of my hand and moved them.

“Since your death, I’ve always dreamed.”

“……”

“Of burning the entire continent and staining even the last handful of soil with blood.”

“……”

“Dreams of destroying and breaking all those things that killed you.”

Each time his lips moved, a hot ticklish sensation rose on my skin, accompanied by a somehow distant feeling.

I frowned deeply at that indescribable feeling.

“…You madman. Your side is being stained with blood right now, you know?”

The wound was large. He had lost too much blood. This wasn’t the time.

“This isn’t the time for this. If we don’t treat it quickly…”

“For you.”

He curled up the corner of his mouth coldly, cutting off my words.

“If I could finally save you this time, my life is nothing.”

“What…?”

“I was in agony after you died.”

A voice with unmistakable weight flowed from between his lips.

“If I die, would you.”

“……”

“Be a little sad?”

He asked, looking at me with affectionate eyes.

For a moment, I felt my heart throb painfully.

I couldn’t help but ask him.

“You disliked me, didn’t you?”

“……”

“You said you would kill me, didn’t you?”

“……”

“You said you would kill me, so why do you speak as if you actually like me?”

“……”

Instead of answering, Niel smiled a faint smile that seemed like it might disappear at any moment.

As that felt exactly like some kind of answer, making my mind dizzy.

Thud!

The arm around my waist lost its strength, and his large body collapsed to the floor.

“Niel!”

I hurriedly examined his body in shock.

Fear rushed over me.

‘What if he dies like this?’

Just as I was thinking I should quickly take him to find a doctor.

Tsk.

With a clicking tongue, I saw a man climbing through the window.

“Yuphe…?”

It was Yuphe, who had suddenly left for the Holy Kingdom without a word.

“You, how did you…”

“Did you miss me?”

I was confused by his appearance, casually climbing through my window and smiling brightly as if it were the most natural thing, but it was fortunate, given the difficult situation.

“Yuphe, please help me. Niel, because of me…!”

“Ah, Niel Alpenhayer.”

Yuphe glanced at Niel collapsed on the floor.

“Is he dead?”

Then he muttered in an indifferent voice and nudged Niel’s body with his foot. A small groan escaped from the collapsed Niel.

“What a shame. He’s on the verge of death.”

He muttered in a genuinely regretful voice, then kicked Niel’s body a bit harder.

“Just die already.”

A louder groan escaped from Niel.

“What are you doing to an injured person?”

“Ah, sorry Jella. I couldn’t help myself.”

When I cried out in shock, he immediately raised both hands in apology. The person he should be apologizing to seemed to be Niel, not me, but right now, I needed his help rather than arguing about right and wrong.

“He’s lost too much blood. The bleeding doesn’t seem to have stopped completely. Until we can see a doctor, with your holy power…”

“Hmm.”

Yuphe nodded quietly, then smiled and produced a golden sphere in his palm.

“Well, I can’t let this guy put you in his debt.”

As his holy power seeped into Niel’s side, the bleeding stopped and the wound disappeared completely.

Just as I was about to let out a sigh of relief at the sight.

I froze.

For a moment, I blinked, wondering if I had seen wrong.

Color was returning to Niel’s face, which had been drained of blood. His breathing became as peaceful as someone in a quiet sleep, and moreover, all the injuries, large and small, that he had sustained while fighting with Cail disappeared.

The priests of the Arne Order used holy power to treat people’s external injuries and heal their ailments.

But that was always within the realm of healing.

So it wasn’t strange at all for the blood flowing from Niel’s side to stop and for the wound to heal cleanly.

But what I just saw was exactly…

‘It’s not just that the wound healed. Beyond the realm of healing, Niel’s body condition became as clean as someone who had never been hurt…’

I shuddered.

The gentle, sacred energy emanating from Niel’s body captured my attention.

‘This isn’t holy power…’

I silently swallowed.

Similar to holy power, but this wasn’t holy power. This was…

‘Life force?’

Suddenly, I remembered the conversation I had with Yuphe the day before he left.

“Is there a way to return people’s life force?”

“What’s already taken can’t be returned. He would have converted and used it with his own power.”

“Then what about the people lying down after having their life force taken by the cult leader?”

“Those people, do you want to heal them?”

After that, the people who had their life force stolen were all suddenly cured overnight.

Although I had no way of knowing how, I was certain that Yuphe had done it.

And this power that Yuphe was wielding just now.

This was clearly not holy power but life force.

“Yupheon, you, you…!”

My face instantly turned pale.

This is impossible. This is truly impossible.

Life force was not a power that humans could handle.

Only God could handle life force.

“You, how did you get this power?”

“Hmm, this…”

At my pressing question, Yuphe trailed off and made a strange expression.

I remembered when he had made such an expression before.

When I asked about the identity of the cult leader.

“Do you know who the cult leader is?”

“I’m sorry, Jella. I can’t tell you.”

Even then, he had shown a similar expression with a subtle smile.

“Are you curious, Jella?”

Unlike his troubled expression back then, Yuphe asked in a gentle voice.

“…Yes.”

I nodded, trying to calm my trembling lips.

Then he narrowed his eyes into half-moons and smiled softly.

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

My heart was beating loudly.

I began to feel that something was wrong.

A foreboding intuition struck me that the moment I heard his answer, the world as I knew it would be shaken.

And my intuitions were usually right.

Slowly, Yuphe’s lips opened.

“Because I killed God.”

“…?”

For a moment, I stared at him blankly, unable to understand his words.

Then he explained kindly once more.

“The d*mn god who gave the oracle to kill you.”

His golden eyes, which had always been sacred and reverent, gleamed wildly.